Daily Times

The International Criminal Court (ICC) established by the Rome Statute repeatedly chooses to be a court devoid of neutrality, defying all logic. Just this month, a second arrest warrant was issued for the Libyan military commander Mahmoud Mustafa Busayf al-Werfalli who is accused of killing ten Takfiri prisoners after a Benghazi mosque attack.

ICC judges have found “reasonable grounds to believe” that Werfalli “allegedly shot dead 10 persons in front of the Bi’at al-Radwan Mosque in Benghazi” on January 24. In an unconfirmed video, Werfalli insisted that he was innocent though he justified the attacks as “sentences” against takfiri killers. In the video he said he had handed himself over to Khalifa Haftar.

When Gaddafi invaded neighbouring Chad in his 1987 “Toyota War”, Haftar was his top military officer. After the invasion resulted in a disastrous military adventure, Haftar switched sides and moved to the anti-Gaddafi opposition. Haftar was a prisoner of war in Chad. He joined the National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL).

In June 1988, he declared the establishment of the military wing of NFSL named Libyan National Army under his leadership, which was a quid pro quo for an American offer of freedom. The CIA negotiated a settlement enabling Haftar and 300 of his soldiers to move to the United States under a US refugee programme. Around 1990, he started living in Virginia, a stone’s throw from CIA headquarters.

The United States would have to investigate its own crimes since the ICC cannot prosecute any American unless it wants to be immediately destroyed by being invaded

It is not known how he supported his family there. According to Abdel Salam Badr of Richmond, Virginia — who said he has known Haftar all his life, including back in Libya — it was an issue of much suspense as to how Haftar supported himself and his large family. A Libyan exile who switches sides is admitted to the United States and has lived near the CIA headquarters ever since with no known source of income despite having a large family is certainly mystifying.

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. It is very likely that he had been on the CIA payroll all this time. He was seen as an asset for a post Gaddafi Libya just like Ahmed Chalabi was for a post Saddam Iraq and maybe even Fethullah Gulen for a post Erdogan Turkey.

Haftar’s calling came when the so-called Arab Spring reached Libya in 2011. Gaddafi’s fate was sealed when NATO bombed Libya, an attack whose legality is questionable. The attack was fiercely opposed by the African Union and the Arab League had only approved for establishing a no fly zone, which did not include intense bombing and missile attacks. The mob killed Gaddafi. Ever since then Libya has been in chaos, which is what Gaddafi had warned about. Haftar had been active in Libya and many suspected he was working for and facilitating the CIA in Libya.

If the ICC is serious about deterrence, it should issue arrest warrants for Haftar as well. As mentioned above, Werfalli handed himself to Haftar. That means Haftar is providing shelter to a criminal wanted by the ICC. That is a crime by association. The United States invaded Afghanistan because the Taliban had given shelter to Bin Laden and had refused to hand him over to the United States because the latter had refused to share any evidence of Bin Laden’s role in 9/11.

Australia and New Zealand officials are looking into allegations of war crimes committed by members of their Special Forces units, including execution of unarmed prisoners. These countries are investigating their own crimes. How about allowing poor African nations to do the same? Why isn’t Werfalli allowed to investigate his own crimes?

And if it is beyond just guesses that Haftar is working for the CIA — a reality the court should be able to establish through its investigative powers — then the court should prosecute the CIA as well. But then there is a firewall in the form of a US law called American Service Members Protection Act (ASPA), which authorises the US to invade The Hague if any American citizen or citizen of an allied nation is brought to trial at the ICC.

Furthermore, the people Werfalli killed were Takfiris. Haftar has been going to horrible lengths to establish his anti-Jihadist credentials in Libya. Apparently, killing people that America doesn’t like shouldn’t be seen as a crime. That’s the norm anyway. The ICC is living up to its reputation of being a court that prosecutes leaders of poor African nations and ragtag militia commanders in war torn countries.

Australia and New Zealand officials are looking into allegations of war crimes committed by members of their Special Forces units, including execution of unarmed prisoners. These countries are investigating their own crimes. How about allowing poor African nations to do the same? Why isn’t Werfalli allowed to investigate his own crimes?

Civilian casualties have been at all time high in Afghanistan this year for which American aggression is directly responsible. Aggression is the worst of all war crime because it has a debilitating effect on all future developments. The United States would have to investigate its own crimes since the ICC cannot prosecute any American unless it wants to be bombed into subservience.

Powerful nations can comfortably prosecute their own war crimes and there are legal immunisations that render the court impotent. Apparently, the court isn’t blind either. Otherwise Bush, Obama, Trump, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Sarkozy, Hollande, Macron, to name a few, would all be prosecuted for grave violations of the international law and for being dangerous war criminals who committed extreme acts of aggression.

The writer can be reached at imran.jan@gmail.com, and tweets @Imran_Jan

Published in Daily Times, July 19^th 2018.